IS MR FOX VISITING YOU TOO?

Received this email from Sarah Gordon who is our NHW group's photographer.

Sarah has a background in veterinary nursing and  is a great lover of animals. Recently Sarah obtained the 'duck crossing' signs for Riversdale Rd from Gold Coast City Council with the help of our Councillor John Wayne.  There is an issue now with Mr Fox and if you can help locate him, please email oxenfordnhw@email.com and I will pass your information on to Sarah.

Dear Everyone who lives anywhere near me (Mendoran Court which is off Brentwood Terrace),

For the last few months we have been aware of a late night visitor. We have lost sixteen chickens to this unwelcome guest. And though I am a most passionate supporter of animals... (See the ducks in riversdale road for a reference to that with thier new 'duck crossing' signs) This has become a problem that alone we are not getting anywhere with.

We have seen Mr Fox ourselves and have noted he is skinny, and he is very very itchy. THIS is my biggest concern. Foxes can spread all sorts of things to our domestic pets, including mange (which is what I suspect this cunning visitor suffers from) tapeworm and various other delightful (NOT) things that will result in trips to the vet and wondering how on earth your dog got that! (and thats not even going into his impact on our native animal population)

Now our problem is this. We have had a council trap set up for months. Every night we bait it with things ranging from dog food to raw chicken, to turkey carcass's to sausage meat.. you name it we have tried it. Thus far we have captured a crow, a cat and a possum.

(I will assure you here it is a humane trap and everything caught has been released well and happy after a lovely meal)

The problem is the fox will not go near it. Almost everytime our chickens are not shut in we loose at least one, he walks past the trap, around the trap, over the trap... he does not walk into the trap.

After discussions with the council yesterday it was suggested that other people may be loosing chickens as well but that some people just dont mention it. Well people. I am putting out a call for help to everyone. Foxes can travel great distances and we dont know where the den is but we do know that they need to be dealt with before disease and future casulties result.

If anyone else has lost any animals and not known how... is it possible he is visiting your house?

The plan is to work out his territory. Since trapping is not working I think the best plan would be to be able to tell the council his address and they can evict him as peacefully as possible. Alternatively if there are others out there getting "visits" more traps could be set up to catch him.

If anyone has information that can be passed back to me through NHW (email oxenfordnhw@email.com) or through the facebook site 'I love oxenford' I would be VERY thankful

I thank you for your time in reading this, and my ten week old Puppy thanks you in advance for helping him to stay disease free!

Kind Regards
Sarah Gordon